Plant pests are a major factor in the loss of the world's important agricultural crops. About $8 billion is lost every year in the U.S. due to infestations of plants by non-mammalian pests including insects. Flying insects in general and corn rootworm in particular pose a serious economic problem for corn, peanuts and leafy vegetable crops. Twenty-one million acres of corn are treated annually in many mid-western states with soil-applied preventative insecticides for controlling Western and/or Northern corn rootworm beetle. Thousands of additional acres of corn, peanuts and leafy vegetables are attacked by two other rootworm species, the Southern and Mexican rootworm beetle and also require similar treatments. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that only about 30% of these treatments with insecticides are justified from an economic loss point of view. Moreover, for a variety of reasons, only a small portion of these treatments is successful because of the poor administration of the insecticide or because of the resistance the insect has developed toward the insecticide.
Accordingly, another approach to the use of insecticides for controlling plant insect pests is to generate transgenic plants that are resistant to the target insect species. However, monitoring the effects of the transgenic plants on the insect infestation is difficult, as there are currently no available suitable and practical monitoring devices. Methods for trapping, capture and monitoring of the corn rootworm beetle and other similar insects are needed to reduce labor connected with field monitoring, time spent by consultants or pest control advisors on such monitoring, and to predict with high accuracy the insect population and degree of infestation. It is therefore advantageous to have available a convenient and practical insect trap that would permit monitoring of insects such as corn rootworm beetle and related species.
The presently disclosed subject matter provides an insect trap particularly suitable for capture of corn rootworm beetle and other insects that is practical and effective for capturing and monitoring the insects.